Alumni

We have a wide network of accomplished alumni across the country! Please see their bios below that feature their current position and publications that came shortly after they received their Ph.D.s in Genetics and Genomics from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. All alumni can be found on LinkedIn.

2024

Gian Sepulveda (Grishok Lab)

Gian Sepulveda recently completed his Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in March 2024. 

2023

Megan Snyder (Sherr Lab)

Megan Snyder recently completed her Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in May 2023.

2020

Barry K. Horne 

Barry recently completed his Ph.D. in genetics and genomics in January 2020. 

 

Stefanie Chan, Ph.D. 

Stephanie is currently working at Pfitzer pharmaceuticals as a contract employee after receiving her degree in 2020. 

 

2019

Chen Khuan Wong

Chen is currently a research fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City after completing his Ph.D in January 2019.

Publications: 

Wong CK, Lambert AW, Ozturk S, Papageorgis P, Lopez D, Shen N, Sen Z, Abdolmaleky HM, Győrffy B, Feng H, Thiagalingam S. Targeting RICTOR Sensitizes SMAD4-Negative Colon Cancer to Irinotecan. Mol Cancer Res. 2020 Mar;18(3):414-423. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-19-0525. Epub 2020 Jan 13. PMID: 31932471; PMCID: PMC7115128.

Wong CK, Gromisch C, Ozturk S, Papageorgis P, Abdolmaleky HM, Reinhard BM, Thiagalingam A, Thiagalingam S. MicroRNA-4417 is a tumor suppressor and prognostic biomarker for triple-negative breast cancer. Cancer Biol Ther. 2019;20(8):1113-1120. doi: 10.1080/15384047.2019.1595285. Epub 2019 Mar 28. PMID: 30922194; PMCID: PMC6605987.

Kalli M, Mpekris F, Wong CK, Panagi M, Ozturk S, Thiagalingam S, Stylianopoulos T, Papageorgis P. Activin A Signaling Regulates IL13Rα2 Expression to Promote Breast Cancer Metastasis. Front Oncol. 2019 Feb 5;9:32. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2019.00032. PMID: 30805303; PMCID: PMC6370707.

 

Jiayi Cox 

Jiayi received her Ph.D. in genetic and genomics in December 2019. She is now a data scientist at the Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research. 

Publications: 

Cox JW, Sherva RM, Lunetta KL, Johnson EC, Martin NG, Degenhardt L, Agrawal A, Nelson EC, Kranzler HR, Gelernter J, Farrer LA. Genome-Wide Association Study of Opioid Cessation. J Clin Med. 2020 Jan 9;9(1):180. doi: 10.3390/jcm9010180. PMID: 31936517; PMCID: PMC7019731.

Cox, J.W., Sherva, R., Lunetta, K., Saitz, R., Kon, M., Kranzler, H., Gelernter, J., & Farrer, L. (2020). Identifying factors associated with opioid cessation in a biracial sample using machine learning. Exploration of medicine, 1, 27 – 41.

Cox, J.W., Patel, D., Chung, J. et al. An efficient analytic approach in genome-wide identification of methylation quantitative trait loci response to fenofibrate treatment. BMC Proc 12, 44 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12919-018-0152-7

 

2018

Dana Lau-Corona

Dana currently is a Researcher at the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition Salvador Zubiran in Mexico City after graduating with her Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in May of 2018.

Publications:

Lau-Corona D, Suvorov A, Waxman D. Feminization of Male Mouse Liver by Persistent Growth Hormone Stimulation: Activation of Sex-Biased Transcriptional Networks and Dynamic Changes in Chromatin States. Mol Cell Biol. 2017 Sep;

Connerney J. Lau-Corona D, Rampersaud A, Waxman D. Activation of Male Liver Chromatin Accessibility and STAT5-Dependent Gene Transcription by Plasma Growth Hormone Pulses. Endocrinology. 2017 Feb; 158(5): 1386-1405.

Lau-Corona D, Kershenobich D, Gutierrez-Reyes G. The impact of genetic variability on liver disease in the Hispanic/Latin-American population. Autoimmunity.2011 May; 44(7):549-554. doi: 10.3109/08916934.2011.592883. Epub 2011 Aug 24.

Kershenobich D, Lau-Corona D, Kershenovich R, Gutierrez-Reyes G. Management of Alcoholic Liver Disease: An Update. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. 2011 Feb; 35(5):804-805. Epub 2011 April 26.

 

2017

Keri Dame 

Keri is utilizing her education as a biologist at the FDA. She graduated with her Ph.D. in Genetics & Genomics in September of 2017 after conducting research under Dr. Laertis Ikonomou.

Publications:

Dame K, Cincotta S, Lang AH, Sanghrajka RM, Zhang L, Choi J, Kwok L, Wilson T, Kandula M, Monti S, Hollenberg AN, Mehta P, Kotton DN, Ikonomou L. Thyroid Progenitors Are Robustly Derived from Embryonic Stem Cells through Transient, Developmental Stage-Specific Overexpression of Nkx2-1. CellPress. 2016 Dec; 8(2):216-225. Epub 2017 Feb 2.

Ikonomou, L., Herriges, M.J., Lewandowski, S.L. et al. The in vivo genetic program of murine primordial lung epithelial progenitors. Nat Commun 11, 635 (2020). https://doi-org.ezproxy.bu.edu/10.1038/s41467-020-14348-3

 

Akshaya Ramesh

Akshaya graduated in 2017 from the GPGG and has moved across the country for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Publications:

Ramesh A, Darko S, Hua A, Overman G, Ransier A, Francica JR, Trama A, Tomaras GD, Yahnes BF, Douek DC, Kepler TB. Structure and Diversity of the Rhesus Macaque Immunoglobulin Loci through Multiple De Novo Genome Assemblies. Front Immunol. 2017 Oct. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2017.01407.

Francica JR, Sheng Z, Zhang Z, Nishimura Y, Shingai M, Ramesh A, Keele BF, Schmidt SD, Flynn BJ, Darko S, Lynch RM, Yamamoto T, Matus-Nicodemos R, Wolinksy D, NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, Nason M, Valiante NM, Malyala P, De Gregorio E, Barnett SW, Singh M, O’Hagan DT, Koup RA, Mascola JR, Martin MA, Kepler TB, Douek DC, Shapiro L, Seder RA. Analysis of immunoglobulin transcripts and hypermutation following SHIV(AD8) infection and protein-plus-adjuvant immunization. Nat Commun. 2015 Apr; 6:6565. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7565.

Small ST, Ramesh A, Bun K, Reimer L, Thomsen E, Baea M, Bockarie MJ, Siba P, Kzura JW, Tisch DJ, Zimmerman PA. Population genetics of the filarial worm wuchereria bancrofti in a post-treatment region of Papua New Guinea: insights into diversity and life history. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2013 Jul; 7(7):e2308. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002308. Print 2013.

Ramesh A, Small ST, Kloos ZA, Kazura JW, Nutman TB, Serre D, Zimmerman PA. The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the filarial nematode Wuchereria bancrofti from three geographic isolates provides evidence of complex demographic history. Mol Biochem Parasitol. 2012 May; 183(1):32-41. doi: 10.1016/j.molbiopara.2012.01.004. Epub 2012 Feb 1.

 

2016

Elyse Kozlowski

In 2016, Elyse graduated from BUSM with a Ph.D. in Genetics & Genomics and currently works as a senior scientist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 

Publication(s):

Pino P, Sebastian S, Kim EA, Bush E, Brochet M, Volkmann K, Kozlowski E, Llinas M, Billker O, Soldati-Favre D. A tetracycline-repressible transactivator system to study essential genes in malaria parasites. Cell Host Microbe. 2012 Dec 13; 12(6):824-24; doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2012.10.016.

Jones MR, Blahna MT, Kozlowski E, Matsuura KY, Ferrari JD, Morris SA, Powers JT, Daley GQ, Quinton LJ, Mizgerd JP. Zcchc11 uridylates mature miRNAs to enhance neonatal IGF-1 expression, growth, and survival. PLoS Genet. 2012; 8(11):e1003105. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003105. Epub 2012 Nov 29.

 

2015

Carly Garrison

Carly graduated from the program in December 2015 and now works a a scientist at Resolution Bioscience in Washington. 

Publications:

Garrison CB, Lastwika KJ, Zhang Y, Li CI, Lampe, PD. Proteomic Analysis, Immune Dysregulation, and Pathway Interconnections with Obesity. J Proteome Res., 2016 Oct; 16(1):274-287. Epub 2017.

Perdomo C, Campbell JD, Gerrein J., Tellez CS, Garrison CB, Walser TC, Drizik E, Si J, Gower AC, Vick J, Anderlind C, Jackson GR, Mankus C, Schembri F, O’Hara C, Gomperts BN, Dubinett SM, Hayden P, Belinsky SA, Lenburg ME, Spira A. MicroRNA 4423 is a primate-specific regulator of airway epithelial cell differentiation and lung carcinogenesis. PNAS. 2013 Nov. 110(47):18946-18951.

 

Sarah (Kleinsorge) Block

Sarah received her degree in June 2015. She is currently a biology instructor at South University in Cleveland, Ohio. 

 

Hila Milo Rasouly

Hila received her Ph.D. in genetics and genomics in 2015. She is currently the associate director of education at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. 

Publications: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1LIqi93t4Od9bN/bibliography/public/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1LIqi93t4Od9bN/bibliography/public/

 

Andrew Hoss 

Andrew received his Ph.D. in June of 2015. He is currently the associate director of bioinformatics at Wave Life Sciences . 

Publications: 

Wake, C., Labadorf, A., Dumitriu, A. et al. Novel microRNA discovery using small RNA sequencing in post-mortem human brain. BMC Genomics 17, 776 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-016-3114-3

Hoss, A.G., Labadorf, A., Latourelle, J.C. et al. miR-10b-5p expression in Huntington’s disease brain relates to age of onset and the extent of striatal involvement. BMC Med Genomics 8, 10 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12920-015-0083-3

 

2014

Rebecca Kusko

Rebecca received her Ph.D. in genetics and genomics in August of 2014. She is currently the VP of business development and corporate affairs for the Immuneering Corporation. 

Publications:

Gong, B., Li, D., Kusko, R. et al. Cross-oncopanel study reveals high sensitivity and accuracy with overall analytical performance depending on genomic regions. Genome Biol 22, 109 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02315-0

Jones, W., Gong, B., Novoradovskaya, N. et al. A verified genomic reference sample for assessing performance of cancer panels detecting small variants of low allele frequency. Genome Biol 22, 111 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02316-z

 

2013

Kristen Ott

Kristen received her Ph.D. in 2013. She is currently a scientist at Orna Therapeutics, Inc. 

Publications: 

Ott KM, Nguyen T, Navarro C. The DExH box helicase domain of spindle-E is necessary for retrotransposon silencing and axial patterning during Drosophila oogenesis. G3 (Bethesda). 2014 Sep 19;4(11):2247-57. doi: 10.1534/g3.114.014332. PMID: 25239103; PMCID: PMC4232550.

 

2012

Catalina Perdomo Ph.D.

Catalina received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2012.  She is currently a Research Associate at Princeton University.

Publications:

Perdomo C, Spira A, Schembri F.  MiRNAs as regulators of the response to inhaled environmental toxins and airway carcinogenesis. Mutat Res 2011 Dec 1; 717(1-2): 32-7.

Wu J, Qian J, Li C, Kwok L, Cheng F, Liu P, Perdomo C, Kotton D, Vaziri C, anderlind C, Spira A, Cardoso WV, Lu J.  miR-129 regulates cell proliferation by downregulating Cdk6 expression. Cell Cycle 2010 May; 9(9): 1809-18.

Schembri F, Sridhar S, Perdomo C, Gustafson AM, Zhang X, Ergun A, Lu J, Liu G, Zhang X, Bowers J, Vaziri C, Ott K, Sensinger K, Collins JJ, Brody JS, Getts R, Lenburg ME, Spira A.  MicroRNAs as modulators of smoking-induced gene expression changes in human airway epithelium. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2009 Feb 17; 106(7): 2319-24.

 

Constantina Christodoulou, Ph.D.

Constantina received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2012.  She is currently an Investigator II at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

Publications:

Christodoulou C, Kotton DN. Are embroyonic stem and induced pluripotent stem cells the same of different? Implications for their potential therapeutic use. Cell Cycle 2012 Jan 1; 11(1): 5-6.

Christodoulou C, Longmire TA, Shen SS, Bourdon A, Sommer CA, Gadue P, Spira A, Gouon-Evans V, Murphy GJ, Mostoslavsky G, Kotton DN.  Mouse ES and iPS cells can form similar definitive endorderm despite differences in imprinted genes. J Clin Invest 2011 Jun; 121(6): 2313-25.

Sommer CA, Sommer AG, Longmire TA, Christodoulou C, Thomas DD, Gostissa M, Alt FW, Murphy GJ, Kotton DN, Mostoslavsky G.  Excision of reprogramming transgenes improves the differentiation potential of iPS cells generated with a single exisable vector. Stem Cells 2010 Jan; 28(1): 64-74.

 

2011

Florin Craciun, Ph.D.

Florin received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2011.  He is currently a Senior Scientist at Sanofi.

Publications:

Craciun FL, Schuller ER, Remick DG.  Early enhanced local neutrophil recruitment in peritonitis-induced sepsis improves bacterial clearance and survival. J Immunol 2010 Dec 1; 185(11): 6930-8.

Osuchowski MF, Craciun FL, Schuller E, Sima C, Gyurko R, Remick DG.  Untreated type 1 diabetes increases sepsis-induced mortality without inducing a prelethal cytokine response. Shock 2010 Oct; 34(4): 369-76. 

 

2010

Ihn Young Song,  Ph.D.

Ihn received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2010.  She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Genetics and Genomics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Publications:

Barkley LR, Song IY, Zou Y, Vaziri C.  Reduced expression of GINS complex members induces hallmarks of premalignancy in primary untransformed human cells. Cell Cycle, 2009 May 15; 8(10): 1577-88.

Ohashi E, Hanafusa T., Kamei K, Song I, Tomida J, Hashimoto H, Vaziri C, Ohmori H.  Identification of a novel REV1-interacting motif necessary for DNA polymerase kappa function. Genes Cells., 2009 Feb; 14(2): 101-11.

Foy RL, Song IY, Chitalia VC, Cohen HT, Saksouk N, Cayrou C, Vaziri C, Cote J, Panchenko MV.  Role of Jade-1 in the histone acetyltransferase (HAT) HBO1 complex. J Biol Chem., 2008 Oct 24; 283(43): 28817-26.

Tomida J, Masuda Y, Hiroaki H, Ishikawa T, Song I, Tsurimoto T, Tateishi S, Shiomi T, Kamei Y, Kim J, Kamiya K, Vaziri C, Ohmori H, Todo T.  DNA damaged-induced ubiquitylation of RFC2 subunit of replication factor C complex. J Biol Chem., 2008 Apr 4; 283(14): 9071-9.

 

Gerald Stanvitch, Ph.D.

Jerry received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2010.  He is currently the Senior Director of Scientific Content at Aptitude Health.

Publications:

Stanvitch G, Moore LL.  cin-4, a gene with homology to topoisomerase II, is required for centromere resolution by cohesin removal from sister kinetochores during mitosis. Genetics, 2008 Jan; 178(1): 83-97.

Moore LL, Stanvitch G, Roth MB, Rosen D.  HCP-4/CENP-C promotes the prophase timing of centromere resolution by enabling the centromere association of HCP-6 in Caenorhabditis elegans. Mol Cell Biol, 2005 Apr; 25(7): 2583-92.

 

2009

Kelly (Graham) Seyed, Ph.D.

Kelly received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2009.  She is currently the Managing Director at McAllister and Quinn.

 

Dorothy Pazin Ph.D.

Dorothy received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2009.  She is currently an Alliance Manager at Broad Insititute of MIT and Harvard.

Publications:

Lee HJ, Pazin DE, Kahlon RS, Correa SM, Albrecht KH. Novel markers of early ovarian pre-granulosa cells are expressed in an Sry-like pattern. Dev Dyn 2009 Apr; 238(4):812-25.

Liu P, Pazin DE, Merson RR, Albrecht KH, Vaziri C. The developmentally-regulated Smoc2 gene is repressed by aryl-hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) signaling. Gene 2009 Mar 15; 433(1-2):72-80. Epub 2008 Dec 24.

Lam AL, Pazin DE, Sullivan BA. Control of gene expression and assembly of chromosomal subdomains by chromatin regulators with antagonistic functions. Chromosoma 2005 Sep; 114(4):242-51. Epub 2005 Oct 15.

 

Panagiotis Papageorgis  Ph.D.

Panagiotis received his  Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2009.  He is currently an Associate Professor and Dean at European University Cyprus

Publications:

Papageorgis P, Lambert AW, Ozturk S, Gao F, Pan H, Manne U, Alekseyev YO, Thiagalingam A, Abdolmaleky HM, Lenburg M, Thiagalingam S. Smad signaling is required to maintain epigenetic silencing during breast cancer progression. Cancer Res 2010 Feb 1; 70(3):968-78.

Gao F, Ponte JF, Levy M, Papageorgis P, Cook NM, Ozturk S, Lambert AW, Thiagalingam A, Abdolmaleky HM, Sullivan BA, Thiagalingam S. hBub1 negatively regulates p53 mediated early cell death upon mitotic checkpoint activation. Cancer Biol Ther 2009 Apr; 8(7):548-56.

Gao F, Ponte JF, Papageorgis P, Levy M, Ozturk S, Lambert AW, Pan H, Chinnappan D, Cheng KH, Thiagalingam A, Abdolmaleky HM, Thiagalingam S. hBub1 deficiency triggers a novel p53 mediated early apoptotic checkpoint pathway in mitotic spindle damaged cells.Cancer Biol Ther 2009 Apr; 8(7):627-35.

Pan H, Gao F, Papageorgis P, Abdolmaleky HM, Faller DV, Thiagalingam S. Aberrant activation of gamma-catenin promotes genomic instability and oncogenic effects during tumor progression.Cancer Biol Ther 2007 Oct; 610):1638-43.

 

Tovah Day Ph.D.

Tovah received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2009.  She is currently an Assistant Professor of Biology at Northeastern University.

Publications:

Day T, Vaziri C. HPV E6 oncoprotein prevents recovery of stalled replication forks independently of p53 degradation Cell Cycle 2009 Jul 15; 8(14):2138.  Epub 2009 Jul 15.

Liu P, Barkley LR, Day T, Bi X, Slater DM, Alexandrow MG, Nasheurer HP, Vaziri C. The Chk1-mediated S-phase checkpoint targets initiation factor Cdc45 via a Cdc25A/Cdk2-independent mechanism. J Biol Chem. 2006 Oct 13; 281(41):30631-44. Epub 2006 Aug 15.

 

2007

Damien Slater, Ph.D.

Damien received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2007. He is currently a Senior Scientist at Foundation Medicine.

Publications:

Liu P, Barkley LR, Day T, Bi X, Slater DM, Alexandrow MG, Nasheuer HP, Vaziri C. The Chk1-mediated S-phase checkpoint targets initiation factor Cdc45 via a Cdc25A/Cdk2-independent mechanism. J Biol Chem. 2006 Oct 13;281(41):30631-44. Epub 2006 Aug 15.

Bi X, Barkley LR, Slater DM, Tateishi S, Yamaizumi M, Ohmori H, Vaziri C. Rad18 regulates DNA polymerase kappa and is required for recovery from S-phase checkpoint-mediated arrest. Mol Cell Biol. 2006 May;26(9):3527-40.

Bi X, Slater DM, Ohmori H, Vaziri C. DNA polymerase kappa is specifically required for recovery from the benzo[a]pyrene-dihydrodiol epoxide (BPDE)-induced S-phase checkpoint. J Biol Chem. 2005 Jun 10;280(23):22343-55. Epub 2005 Apr 6.

 

Courtney Kronenthal, Ph. D.

Courtney received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics in 2007. She is currently working with the Genomes2People project at Bringham and Womens.

Publications:

Mintzer JL, Kronenthal CJ, Kelly V, Seneca M, Butler G, Fecenko-Tacka K, Altamuro D, Madore SJ. Preparedness for a natural disaster: how coriell planned for hurricane sandy. Biopreserv Biobank. 2013 Aug;11(4):216-20. doi: 10.1089/bio.2013.0035. Epub 2013 Aug 6.

Kronenthal C, Delaney SK, Christman MF. Broadening research consent in the era of genome-informed medicine. Genet Med. 2012 Apr;14(4):432-6. doi: 10.1038/gim.2011.76. Epub 2012 Mar 15.